The Collected Speeches of Joseph Stalin is a piano improvisation in 19 equal. It features the logidy UMI3 pedal which gives me access to the 3 other piano pedals besides sustain that pianoteq supports; Una Corda, Sostenuto, and used here at ~5 minutes the Harmonic pedal which doesn’t exist in a real piano. The logidy pedal is the most cost effective solution to accessing these other pedals ($80 Amazon) and is fully programmable and even supports attaching an expression pedal. Obviously this is also a great solution for owners of an AXiS 49 which for some inexplicable reason doesn’t have sustain pedal capability.
Guillaume de Machaut via Classical Forums (click picture for article)
Here is a comparison of La messa de Nostre Dame Sanctus in different tunings as rendered via Kontakt’s choir sample set. The midi file I used is here. (S.Takahata transcribed the piece to midi) The score with Sonar’s brain-dead accidentals is here.
First version uses Kontakt’s built in adaptive JI (adaptive JI = dynamic pure tuning like this live example video that shows the changes in intonation in real time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB6I6EWWdr4 )
In C is a piece manipulated for ImprovFriday’s improvisation in C event. It was originally a piece written in 17 equal on an electric guitar and then pushed through severe harmonic series filtering with a fundamental of 32.7 Hz.
“There are two possible outcomes: If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you’ve made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you’ve made a discovery.”
—Enrico Fermi
Chicago Pile-1 is an ambient piece developed through midi recording of change control data via a Korg MS2000 and applying that data to various software synthesizers in 27 note per octave tuning. The following software sound sources were used: ZETA+ 2.1, Absynth 5, Xenharmonic FMTS 1, and Kontakt 4 for percussive sounds. The DAW was Sonar X1.
Sagibelius is a plugin for Sibelius notation software to allow notation in Sagittal – which is an extremely flexible generalized microtonal notation. Jacob Barton developed this software and more details – plus software download – can be found at this link.
I tested it on Sibelius 6.2.0 with Vista 64 and it worked perfectly. For Windows users the procedure is:
The Sagibelius font gets installed in control panel / fonts (drag and drop into the font window.)
Then find the plugin is put into the Sibelius plugin folder, in my case
Image from Katerina Art – click on image to view more work by this great graphics artist. If you follow the link you will see that she has dedicated this image to the victims of 9-11. Katerina of course owns all rights to her image and is not covered under my Creative Commons License.
I didn’t intend this – I created this piece of music on my AXiS 49 as a demonstration and many people liked it. When I feel what the music evokes in me it is a sense of sadness but diffuse and delicate sadness. Thus I choose “Clouds of Angel Tears” as the title and searched google images on that title and found Katerina’s image. I hope she doesn’t mind I have associated the two.
Technically – the piece is in Johnny Reinhard’s 8th octave harmonic series tuning. The tuning is something that Johnny has been working on and was introduced to when I met him at the 2011 Xenharmonic Praxis in West Virginia. Because of the relationships between the notes “clouds” of harmonics and harmonies evolve. Since I only have a 98 key controller I was only able to use about 2/3rds of an octave in this piece.
Chris
More technical information. Below is an animated score video of the piece which demonstrates graphically how I approached the improvisation. The score used is called a “piano roll”. This is preferred over using a conventional staff in the animation because of the very large number of notes involved. The piece was performed on an AXiS 49 in selfless mode giving me access to 98 notes of the tuning, or roughly 2/3′s of an octave. The areas in the piano roll correspond 1:1 with areas of the AXiS 49 in selfless mode.
The concept of the piece was to attempt to combine circuit bending with orchestral instrumentation. Jukka provided 2 circuit bent tracks and 3 multilayered midi files in 113 cent, 103 cent and 89 cent tuning when rendered as circuit bent audio. I choose the tuning ( John Chalmer’s Triadic Aggregate-19 see below ) and instrumentation which consists of strings, brass, woodwinds, reeds, percussion, upright fretless jazz bass, and Chinese cymbals. Additionally I added various modulation effects to Jukka’s audio.
Jukka sends this description of how he created the music: All music, both Sega MP3 and MIDI files are algorithmic compositions based on few probability distibutions controlling a group of parameters. MP3 is made by Sega Genesis which contain Yamaha YM2612 FM-chip. The chip is controlled by a program I’ve written which manipulates directly the sound registers of the chip. MIDI files are generated by a program which produces note and duration events according few constrains and distributions, best expression I’ve heard so far is a term coined by composer/mathematician John Myhill, ‘controlled indeterminacy’.
And I put together a video with images from www.archive.org and www.wikipedia.org
John Chalmer’s tuning:
! C:\Program Files\Scala22\Triadic Scales\TriadicAggregate-19.scl
!
Triadic Aggregate-19 All 52 Harmonic Scales on same tonic
19
!
25/24
16/15
10/9
9/8
6/5
5/4
32/25
4/3
25/18
36/25
3/2
25/16
8/5
5/3
16/9
9/5
15/8
48/25
2/1
This is a composition that uses indeterminacy with respect to pitch (and instruments but since this is one recording that doesn’t apply). However, all of the other musical elements are controlled. This performance occurred at the Xenharmonic Praxis Summer Camp on 7/28/11 and was performed by Stephen, Jacob, Ralph, and myself (Chris) in the art center. Please note that the other music [at the above link ] was a lot more, well, musical
We are the composer’s voice
The breath of life into the music of his soul.
We are a part of him and him apart of us
And we speak of the union
The union in this moment of our souls
Breathing life into the music
Making real the music
Making a bridge between us all
The Onset of Beauty is a study in driving several virtual instruments with a keyboard set up devised for live performance. Essentially I’m dividing an Alesis Q49 into two halves to control classical guitar and flute virtual instruments and using the compact AXiS 49 to control female vocal and gongs. The pace of the piece is a little slow since this was more complex to use then the straight layering of virtual instruments on a single keyboard that I have been using. The tuning is “normal” 12 edo.
Also Lucian Freud has died today. I’m using one of his paintings for this piece in his memory. You can find out more about him here and here.
Thanks to Vassily Kaah who posted this photo.
